China-based Alibaba has spent the past few years setting the global pace for e-commerce and meeting consumer demand—anywhere and anytime. In fact, Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company. But as CEO Daniel Yong Zhang explains, Alibaba is much more than an e-commerce company. It’s a marketplace, a search engine and a bank all in one. It’s also a data company, which uniquely positions the company to know exactly what its customers want—critical information that keeps Alibaba on track and ahead of the game.

Alibaba has its finger on the pulse of the consumer, and Nielsen CEO Mitch Barns recently sat down with Mr. Zhang to ask how other companies can step up their games amid growing fragmentation, technological developments and evolving consumer demand.